Education experts have faulted the government for the delayed distribution of text books required for teaching the new O-level curriculum.
This comes the day after the government revealed that consignments of the long awaited text books for the new curriculum had arrived in the country.
According to the Education Ministry Spokesperson Dr. Denis Mugimba, the distribution of over 15 million copies directly to 1,400 public and 3,400 private schools will start immediately.
He said that the target is to achieve a 1:3 text book to learner ratio.
However, Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) Secretary General, Filbert Bates Baguma said that, the late distribution is a total mess.
“The whole implementation of the lower secondary curriculum has had hiccups from day one of roll out, because of releasing text books in “piece meal”. We are almost one month to the closure of the second term and they are talking of delivering the text books. Which simply means some schools will close the term before they even get these books,” he said.
Baguma added that, there is need to draw lessons so that moving towards A-level, there is no repeat of these things otherwise, the students will be doomed.
“There has been distortion in the implementation of the new curriculum for lower secondary due to failure for government to provide resources for buying scholastic materials,” he said.
He said that most schools in the rural set up have been using the old curriculum without a reference book. Some schools in urban set up that can access the publishers can buy the learners’ text books and teach the old and new curriculum.
Baguma said that, though some books have been delivered in various classes for some regions, other regions have not yet received them, while others have received few copies of between two and three.
“It has not been a smooth voyage in the implementation of this new curriculum for lower secondary,” added Baguma.
Aron Mugaiga, the Secretary General of the Uganda Professional Science Teachers Union (UPSTU) said that delayed distribution will slow down normal teaching and learning as it is impossible to complete the syllabus of one year in just months.
To address the challenge, Hasadu Kirabira, the Chairperson of the National Private Educational Institutions Association (NPEIA) said that schools are likely to forego some activities on their calendars such as extracurricular activities.
